Throughout the upgrade process, the one thing I took for granted was the HLT. I figured we would just use the pot from our 5 Gallon extract brews, no worries. Then we checked the capacity of the pot. Somehow, 22 quarts was a surprise. Yes, we boiled 3 Gallons of wort and added water in the fermentor to reach our targeted volume. but this was never really thought about until about 10 days prior to out first 10 Gallon All Grain brew day.
Amazon to the rescue! I ordered the 82 quart (20.5 Gallon!) Stainless Steel pot and decided to use this as the Brew Kettle and shift the Keggle that was previously detailed to the Hot Liquor Tank. This gave us a 15.5 Gallon HLT, 10 Gallon MT and a 20 Gallon BK.
While this pot is a bit thin and does not have a tri-clad bottom, it serves the purpose very well. I will not be lifting it with more than three gallons of wort in it, and only after it has been cooled. That’s why we have the pumps!
Great! A box inside a box! I wonder how many more.
No, that was all. Just a pot left. Here it is on my Dining Room Table.
For a quick size comparison, that is a 12″ Crescent Wrench leaning against it.
Here it is sitting over the jet burner on the Brew Cart
I cut the holes and added the three piece vale and thermometer the same as I did for the Keggle.
Then I added the side pickup tube. This has a compression fitting so the nut just screws on to the closed nipple. As you can see, I added a Bazooka Screen to the side pickup tube. We had ordered this but decided on a manifold for our Mash Tun. I figured I would use it here. Why let it go to waste? I removed the clamp and 1 inch closed nipple. Then I slipped a stainless hose clamp over the tube and slid the bazooka screen on. Clamped it into place and, voila!
Bazooka Kettle Screen For brew kettle or mash tun – $9.25
This is an optional component.
Notice the space I have left with the Immersion Chiller in this beast!
Plenty of room all around!
To help with the hop particles, I decided on Spice balls. The one on the left is a 4″ Spice Ball, the other is 3″. The 4″ ball will hold 2 oz of hop pellets expanded in the wort. The 3″ will hold 1 oz.
These are Stainless Steel, but I wasn’t sure if the chains were, so I removed them.
Extra-Large Jumbo-Size, Spice Ball, Stainless Steel, Extra Large Size (4″ x 4″) – $9.95
Maxware Stainless Steel One Piece 3 Inch Teaball/spice Ball – $5.95
The plan is to install the 2 piece valve at the top of the pot to transfer the sweet wort into the Brew Kettle. I haven’t yet done this. I place the valve into the output hose from the pump for the sweet wort and rest it atop the Brew Kettle. I can still control the flow of the output this way and have been working on other projects to get the brewery going. I added the cost of the valve and bulkhead in the pricelist of this build since this was my intention and I am still using the valve.